China Construction Bank Private Banking
Despite competition not only from its ‘big four’ peers but also increasingly from joint-stock and regional players, China Construction Bank Private Banking picked up over 12% more private-banking clients in 2019, lifting its client base to 143,000. That brought a similar 12% increase in assets under management, which rose to Rmb1.5 trillion ($215 billion).
And it is all thanks to CCB’s success under general manager Liu Jianzhong in building a first-class family wealth business. According to a 2018 survey conducted jointly by CCB and Boston Consulting Group, nearly 50% of high net-worth (HNW) individuals in China will start planning for wealth transfer within the next three years. Some 40% had started planning already. That survey is now two years old, so it is clear that opportunities abound for private banks focusing on wealth management.
Given that family trusts are widely considered the right tool to preserve and safely transfer wealth, CCB’s established trust business, CCB Trust Co, gives CCB Private Banking something of an advantage over the competition.
CCB’s family-trust advisory business reached Rmb28 billion of AuM by the end of 2019, after the bank successfully expanded into insurance trusts.
A breakthrough for CCB last year was the successful launch of its family-office business in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Jinan, covering private-banking clients with over Rmb500 million in assets.
The bank has invested in technology, including developing its own independent advisory system.
While providing a full range of products across different asset classes for its family wealth management clients, CCB also dedicates itself to investor education, such as holding a family wealth forum last year in Hangzhou, home to some of China’s wealthiest families.